A Life on the Line
A MICA Flight Paramedic's Story
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
When the author was a kid, a big white sleek ambulance squatted like a lion in the driveway next door, always ready to go, and sometimes it did, roaring down the street. Today he is a MICA Flight Paramedic with decades of varied experience in 'a life of extremes' in an Australian ambulance service. He does shifts at base on-call, and teaches another generation of paramedics now. Loves his job.
A list of well-known events that includes Victoria's Black Saturday Fires and the 2005 Bali Bombing - he was trying to get married when that call came in - mark two dark extremes. Technical matters - trauma treatment decisions, and the limits of aviation, for example - are explained. And this book includes the little things like the time the supermarket aisle was alive with the sound of music from an ex-patient's kid's lips: 'Thanks for looking after Daddy.' Darren couldn't have put it better himself, and it made his heart sing.
This book tells what is like to be Darren Hodge on the end of a line, what it is like to be a paramedic. Open, honest reports, warts and all, this memoir is an unflinching account of how it feels, say, to pluck people from imminent death. And there are some laughs on the way...
Customer Reviews
Inspiring
An incredible look into the life of a dedicated flight paramedic. Life and death in their precious hands mostly during that golden hour of the life support required to exist.
As a Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Air Observer, I thoroughly appreciated the detail, trust, teamwork and synergy of the aircrew, this is how we roll.
I gained a lot about some of the life saving medical procedures utilised by MICA Paramedics in this book.
A great read, I didn’t want the book to finish, thanks for writing it Darren.
100 % accurate and shows a great MPF
True to life
Don’t know if I Laugh, Cry or get angry
Absolutely amazing book about not only HEMS but just a glimpse into the Ambulance Service, working in Ambulance you meet and talk to these people every day but never get to hear it like this. Highly recommend the read and I’m sure that there could be another 100 volumes of this!